Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Troupe Announces First Women Cast Members

BOSTON (CBS/AP) – For the first time in nearly 200 years, women will star in Hasty Pudding productions.

The Crimson reports that on Sunday night the once all-male Harvard University group cast six women in its 2019 show, along with six men.

The group founded in 1844 is known for comedic revues that feature men in drag playing female characters. Students and alumni have been calling on the troupe to change its casting policy in recent years. Female students even have been auditioning for roles as a protest over the years, but none ever were cast.

At a comedic roast celebrating actress Mila Kunis in January, the group announced it would allow women to join the cast.

CAMBRIDGE, MA – JANUARY 25: Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ Woman of the Year Mila Kunis (C) attends Hasty Pudding Theatricals Honors Mila Kunis as 2018 Woman Of The Year on January 25, 2018 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images for Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770)

Kunis said the casting policy changes factored heavily into her decision to accept her pudding pot.

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” she said. “It was something very important to me. This is something this program always wanted to do. It was something that was going to happen inevitably.”